Little Red 1955 Farmall 100

ky wonder said:

great!!!

i also grew up on a little red ih 140, one of my grandads bought one new in 1963, and he/we raised tobacco all over the country around here, it was his only tractor, he hept it and used it to raise tobacco with untill 1989 (he was 82 and decided he was not going to raise any more tobacco)when he sold it to a neighbor with all his tools for it. he ended up raising a crop two more years but missed his little tractor.

the local postmaster owns the tractor and knows that all they have to do is price it for it to come home

congrats and thanks for making the old guys dream come true

Click to expand...

gordon1121 said:

In 1972 my father in law Bob Tipton bought his farm and first tractor a 1955 Farmall 100. Although he had farmed all his life with his father, 20 acres of tobacco, cattle and some corn for feed they did it all with horses. The farm he bought was 67 acres and had a 7500lb tobacco base which was large for the amount of land. When he went to buy a tractor he wanted one he could do it all with and the local ford/Ih dealer had the 100 for sale. He bought the tractor with a belly 5ft mowing machine IH side dresser, Holland tobacco setter and a brand new set of cultivators 140 style that had never been in the ground. He gave 1800.00 dollars for the lot and told me he could have got a 140 far 2000 but didn't have the extra 200 dollars. It was his only tractor for three years when he added a 1963 2000 Ford. He did all the plowing, harrowing, setting, cultivating, mowing and anything else with little red. He has since had some bigger and "nicer" tractors but still says if he had to go to one tractor little red would be the last one to leave the farm because its the only one that can do it all. I can't say how many days I've spent on little red in the past thirty years but I have to agree with him. My wife says its the only tractor he ever had she really liked. She learned to drive on little red and used to ride on the the lift rod for the quick hitch with her feet on the flat spot by the gear shift while he plowed tobacco. We used stack two bags of ammonia nitrate on the hood with two in the hopper to plow two rounds. The tractor has definitely been used since it came on the farm. About the time of the buyout Bob was diagnosed with Parkinson's. The last three or four years Bob has been saying he wanted to fix little red back up like it was when he got it so last fall I told Bob I wanted to use little red to grade my drive through the winter and he said good it would be run some through the winter. My oldest son wanted us to fix it up for his birthday and that was the only way I could think of to do it without him knowing. I have already posted the pics of what we did in a previous post but here is why we did it.

When we took it back we unloaded it about a half mile from his house and Melinda and I drove the truck and trailer on in and Brandon brought the tractor. Bob was in the yard when we got there and ask where the boys were about that time Brandon came up the hill on little red and he never said a word just walked around it a couple of times and looked it over real close. I said well Bob it aint perfect but we hope you like it. He walked around it one more time and finally said well if it aint I don't know what you would change.

Click to expand...